Tracking the Tigers with MLB.com beat writer Jason Beck.

Saturday’s lineups: Tigers vs. Angels

As you no doubt have heard by now, Miguel Cabrera is back at designated hitter, and manager Jim Leyland expects to have him there Sunday too. Delmon Young and Andy Dirks get the starts in the corner outfield spots, pushing Brennan Boesch to the bench for a night. Boesch will start on Sunday, Leyland said, giving Young two days off when you add in Monday’s off-day.

As for third base, Jeff Baker gets the start tonight against Dan Haren, who’s allowing a .337 batting average and an .879 OPS to right-handed hitters compared to .240 and .745, respectively, against lefties.

No Albert Pujols again in the Angels lineup. There was some talk he would be back tonight.

Why not Jhonny at third base for three games against the Angels?? After all he is our second best third sacker. Would three games in a row at shortstop be too many for Ramon?? He is our primary backup at short. Three games in a row as a lefthanded hitter might get him going. Instead we have Ramon on Friday, Jeff on Saturday, and Is Miguel back there on Sunday??? If not when???

Interesting comment in the 1st by C-Mo. I was going to bring this up and then I heard him do the same. (Oh my, Prince? Please learn how to slide-that was absurd.
Then Delmon turns a triple into a double. Ouch.

Oh, the comment—hitting mistakes. It seems that when our pitchers make `mistakes`they get clobbered. We don`t have a player that can hit a mistake.
Actually just about anything a pitcher throws to Miguel is a mistake so that`s not entirely true I guess.
But seriously, we do not have good mistake hitters. Kendrick jumped all over that hanging slider by RP yesterday on 0-2. Huge mistake that RP readily admitted to. I really like Porcello. He threw a “butte“ (sic) yesterday..

Only the Tigers can hit two doubles in one inning and not score.
The Angels 4 runs in the series and 3 of them came from defensive lapses.
This is the very definition of terrible baseball. Who could be happy with this?

There is nothing enjoyable about watching these guys anymore…. They are aweful, they wouldn’t beat a AAA team right now because thar pitcher old have the best game of his life. They are embaressing their manager their genera manager their owner and their fans and they just don’t seem to give a crap!

Factors to be sure Dave. But there are other problems too. Talent, coaching and chemistry.
This team does not pick each other up. They do not do a lot of mid-game adjustments. They lack speed, creativity, and play poor defense. They need a makeover in the coaching staff, including Leyland. They also need their GM to recognize what he has and what he doesn`t. I suspect he relies to heavily on JL`s opinion in this respect.
As far as today- With this cast of characters, getting 4 runs is akin to scaling Mt. Everest. How can this possibly be done.

Not sure I agree that they lack talent, but they lack something….what my dad used to call gumption. Go look at te batting averages of Seattle, Oakland and Tampa, but they got gumption and fire and yes score some runs. Hell last night they put up 6 on CWS in the 9 th.

I am not sure QB is an upgrade over DY in LF, particularly since DY lost weight. Afterall, he was a CF/RF for Tampa and even stole 14 bases one season. That means he can run. And he also led the AL in assists in 2010 @ LF. QB has an average or below arm and takes poor routes. I prefer him to be used situationally.I don’t want DY’s bat out of the lineup unless necessary. We only have a few games left to get value out of him till he is dumped.

Funny on thewy home from work people were complaining that DY was playing tonight over Boesch or Berry (sports radio talk). Well I guess we know why he was n tonight.
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Now my thoughts, super glad they won obviously. But the errors including Fielders roll at second, which cost us a run early and the fielding errors where infuriating. Still really not pleased they didn’t do anything against a poor starting pitcher who hadn’t made it out of the 3 rd inning in his last two outings against some light hitting teams.

They’ve never hit Dan Haren and probably never will, so that wasn’t surprising. The errors must be cleaned up. The fundamentals are bad.
And we still won. It took 14 hits to score 5 runs. I’ve never seen a team like this. I’m going to hand out kudos to whoever was the ball boy/girl down the LF line. Gettin’ out of the way of Peralta’s double enabled Dirks to score. How’s that for an unsung hero? Or heroine.
Smyly was very good.
They’ll never get C-Mo back in the studio after tonight. He was having a blast and was actually very good at it. Good insights and I liked his excitement.
This was a more important win than might appear. We need to be 2 or less games behind when Chicago comes rolling in next Friday. They have one with Seatlle and four in Baltimore. We have the one with LAA and three in KC. We should be able to accomplish the 2 game thing.

Our manager was spot on when he said Drew was the key to the game!!!! He also gave us the starting catcher tomorrow, Gerald Laird, who is 6 for 18 against Santana before 2010!!!!!!!! Delmon’s three hits tonight might get him another start tomorrow.

Richard, we’re all in this together, so we move on. The first six innings of the game tonight give an insight to my “white flag” comment. The last three innings tell us why baseball is the best sport on earth. We actually scored three runs in one inning. I am not going to spend my time here tonight telling what is wrong with this team. Hopefully, this much needed win spurs us into a good 10-12 game stretch.
Remember my comment last night; the Sox don’t lose; I didn’t expect them to lose tonight; they’re are on a roll. I keep waiting for them to slow down. The Orioles can give them a fit at home. So with a hard fought victory tonight, here are three things that I really liked in the game:
1. Alex’s throwout of Aybar at third, in the top of the fourth. I know it sounds like a broken record, but that play stopped Angel momentum for the night. They would have scored a fourth run, with the single following that out. Who knows how many more might have scored? Angels did not score agin after the fourth inning. Thanks Alex.
2. Smyly’s start. Another reason shown tonight why I didn’t favor the Sanchez trade(not counting Omar). His July start against the Royals was excellent, and he was very good tonight. I still contend a lefty starter down the stretch would be a plus. Drew and the Bulls kept us in the game until the hitters arose from the dead.
3. Two out Base hits, and finally two out base hits that drove in runs. Peralta seems like a really humble guy. It’s wonderful when he comes through bigtime, just in time for a W.

Valverde looked like a dominant closer tonight. Hopefully, Sanchez will bring his B game tomorrow, and Mad Max continues to strike out anybody and everybody in sight. Sox time is on the way. Let’s shut up Hawk for good! Good night all!

Well, the clowns won. Sounds almost the same as booing a Tiger at a game and then cheering for him when he gets a 2 out hit in the 8th. Do you all think the DH role is affecting Delmon’s hitting? What do you think the Angel fans are saying right now? Our Tigers are in the race and yes they are frustrating sometimes because we watch every game! Yes, the best show (sport) on Earth. No clock and it ain’t over til its over. Go Tigers!

That is a good question about the DH issue and you made some valid points.. After we dump DY we will probably get comparison info. I think the Yanks could pick him up with Swisher’s presumed departure. DY could be a nice fit for them.

Even with the early miscues, I figured we still had a chance and they finally came through with some clutch hitting. Merciful heaven!
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Who would have ever thought C-Mo would end up as a broadcaster for the Tiger organization. He was a little unpolished the first couple weeks, but the man has found a new career and is quite good at it.
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The Free Press had an article in today’s paper with some stats: Tigers have allowed 61 unearned runs, highest in the AL. White Sox only 28.

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